ErichRaulfestone
10/26/01 03:52 PM
164.76.107.230
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Soldiers training for night
fighting say high-tech
equipment means they’re
anywhere but in the dark.
Capt. Keith Pruitt said night
vision technology is as simple
as looking through a night sight,
putting a dot on a target and
pulling the trigger.
“It is so much easier to control
and so much easier to see,” said
Pruitt, who commands Charlie
Company, 3rd Battalion of the
82nd Airborne’s 505th
Parachute Infantry Regiment.
“It really illuminates the target.”
The troops, on a night training
exercise here this week, said
that means they often score
higher in the dark than during
the day on weapon qualifying
tests.
That’s good news for the U.S.
military, whose attack on
terrorism in Afghanistan has
been shrouded in darkness.
“The enemy doesn’t have the
night observation capabilities
that we do,” said Staff Sgt. Brad
Cowan, a master gunner. “It
wouldn’t make any sense for us
to fight them on their terms —
their battle ground — which is the daytime.”
Pruitt said the United States is the only military in the world that can fight
powerfully at night.
“We are playing with four aces whenever we go into combat,” he said. “We are like
going to Vegas and playing with a stacked deck right now.”
In Monday night’s training exercise, about 600 paratroopers jumped from C-130
Hercules cargo planes onto the drop zone.
Once on the ground, they moved to attack enemy positions concealed in the tree
line around the drop zone. Two Air Force combat controllers zipped around the
dark drop zone on dirt bikes painted black, without any headlights. They had night
vision goggles attached to their Kevlar helmets.
Black lights were raised on giant poles on the zone, telling soldiers where to go.
Squad leaders directed fire by pointing “flood lights” on the tree line. With night
vision goggles, the infrared beams illuminated the tree line like a bonfire. Without
the goggles, the lights were invisible.
Cowan calls the gear “own-the-night equipment.” He said the night laser gun
systems can be prepared to fire — called sighting — without the need to test-fire
them.
“We don’t miss,” he said. “We go to the ranges at night and we find we are very
successful at night engaging the targets. You actually see where your bullets are
going to go.”
While no 82nd Airborne units have been sent to Afghanistan, the technology used
by the soldiers here is akin to that used by Army special operations troops.
“If you do not have this type of equipment, you are going to be able to hear us,
likely,” Pruitt said. “But see us? No. We are going to see you before you see us.
All the enemy has to do is pop one round off and we get focused. And it’s
history.”
God and the soldier we adore, In time of danger, not before!
The danger passed, and all things righted, God is forgotten and the soldier slighted.
--unknown
Erich Raulfestone
Rangers, Lead the Way!
Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?"
And I said, "Here am I. Send me!"
Isaiah 6:8
......and I went......
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